Philemon 1

₁Philemon, I, Paul, and our friend Timothy are writing this letter to you. I am in jail because I work for Jesus Christ. You work with us for God, and we love you. ₂We also write this letter to Apphia. She is like a sister to us. And we write to Archippus who also tells the people about Christ, and we write this letter to the church who come to pray and worship in your home.

₃We pray that God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ will be very good to you and give you peace.

₄When I pray and think about you, I always thank my God, ₅because people tell me good things about you. You believe in the Lord Jesus and you love all the people of God. ₆You believe in Christ just as Timothy and I believe in Him. Yes, you believe and therefore I pray that this will make you think about all the good things that God has done for us, so that you can also do good things and Christ can be proud of you. ₇My friend, you made the people of God very happy and you made me happy. Yes, you showed your love for everyone, and now I feel stronger to do my work.

₈You and I believe in Christ, and we belong to Him, and that is why I can ask you to do something for me. ₉But I do not want to say you must do it. I am pleading with you: Please do it for me, because you love me.

I, Paul, am an old man. I am in jail because I love Christ Jesus and I work for Him. ₁₀So I am asking you to help my friend Onesimus. I told him about Jesus and he started to believe in Him and he has become like my child and I like his spiritual father while I am here in jail. ₁₁Before I met him, Onesimus could not help you. Now he can help you and he can help me.

₁₂Onesimus is very important to me, but I am sending him back to you. ₁₃I wanted to keep him here with me for the time that I am in jail. I am here because I told the people the Good_News about Jesus. You are not here, and you can not help me now, so I wanted Onesimus to help me here. ₁₄But I wanted to ask you first. I hope you will say ‘yes’. I want you to help me because you really want to help, not because you feel you have to do it.

₁₅Why was Onesimus away from you for a short while? Maybe it was so that you can have him back forever. ₁₆You get him back again, but now he is not only your slave. He is like your brother. I love Onesimus very much, but you will now love him more than I do. You will love him because he is your slave and also your brother. He is your brother because he also believes in the Lord.

₁₇I am your friend who works with you for the Lord. If I come to you, you will welcome me and you will be happy to meet me. Please do the same to Onesimus. Welcome him in the same way. ₁₈If Onesimus has done anything wrong to you, I will make it right. If there is money that he must pay you, I will pay that money to you. ₁₉I, Paul, am writing these words myself, with my hand. I will pay the money back to you. But remember that you must also be thankful to me, because it was I who told you about Christ, and you owe me your life. ₂₀So, my friend, I really want you to help me, because we belong to the Lord. Please do this for me as someone who belongs to Christ so that I can feel happy.

₂₁I write this letter to you because I know that you will do what I ask you to do. I am sure that you will do even more than this.

₂₂I want to ask you one more thing. I know that all of you are praying that they will let me go out of jail. Because of your prayers I hope to come and visit you again. Please prepare a room where I can stay.

₂₃Our friend Epaphras is also here in jail with me because he told people about Christ Jesus. Epaphras sends greetings to you. ₂₄Our other friends Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, who all work with me, also send greetings to you.

₂₅I pray that the Lord Jesus Christ will give his grace to all of you.